The objective of the project is the targeted development and implementation of a method for combined recovery of previously separately recoverable composite packagings (from Knittel GmbH) and copper-containing residual streams from metalworking (from the production processes of Wieland-Werke AG) and their implementation in a large-scale plant.

Further implementation of the process from laboratory scale leads to a test setup in pilot plant scale. Here the fundamentals for scaling up are to be created and process management knowledge obtained for continuous operation. In addition, the project will examine the question of additional residual materials that could be used as input materials.

From an ecological and economic point of view, coupling two inherently separately treated residual material streams from different industries in order to increase raw material efficiency is extremely interesting. Rising raw material prices in the past were the result of rapidly growing demand. Experts assess that this trend will continue. For example, at € 5,400/tonne, copper is twice as expensive as it was in the 1990s. The market prices for PE commercial mixed films with a high proportion of transparent films of 80 to 90 % are currently between €150 and €220/tonne, although this price is subject to large price fluctuations depending on the PE quality.

The project is being carried out by the bifa Umweltinstitut, in cooperation with Wieland Werke AG and Knittel GmbH, and will last for 14 months until the end of September 2015 and is being funded by the Bavarian State Ministry of the Environment and Consumer Protection ("Bayerischen Staatsministerium für Umwelt und Verbraucherschutz").

Looking back – Project Part 1 In the cooperation project with Wieland-Werke AG and Knittel GmbH, also funded by the Bavarian State Ministry of the Environment and Consumer Protection, a combined recycling method was developed to recover secondary raw materials from previously separately recovered composite packaging and used pickling acid from the metalworking industry and other copper-containing waste streams from production processes. The objective in project phase 1 was to try out possible implementation in a large-scale recovery plant to substitute primary raw materials.